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Monday, 5 May 2008

AYELLOW painting on a yellow day for you. The sun is shining beautiful warmly out there and here is the third in the series of seven paintings I am making for a client, finished a little while ago. There was going to be a stage by stage series of photographs for you of this painting progressing, with mistakes and changes and developings.. but alas they were on the hard drive. I am very pleased with this third character and his ram and with the yellowish scratchy paintwork, and so, I am happy to say, is his owner...The painting series is to take place over some time so that even though there is a cohesive theme to the paintings, hopefully a development in my work will be evident in the seven pieces when they are all done.I am finding it fascinating to read the thoughts of my client after he receives each painting. I find that the ideas I might subconsciously communicate in the works are not very easily accessible to me in a verbal way, which I suppose is why I paint. But to hear the thoughts and reactions of the "commissioner" written eloquently, is a luxury I am not used to, and encourages me that I must be doing something right. Number four will begin soon. A happy yellow monday to you all...

I was just told about your blog from a friend who said it was a must see. I am blown away by your art and creativity! Reminds me a bit of one of my favorites, Hieronymus Bosch. I can't wait to see more from an artist from my favorite country, Scotland!

Ah Rima, I've been away long enough in my deadline-induced exile to have missed a number of delightful entries. Love the CD packaging! So sorry about the hard drive (somedays I so totally hate computers. But I don't think I could happily live with out one anymore). Love the celebratory, thatched garden temple. Hope your inclement weather ends soon and turns into near-summer! and love this golden piece (the ram is just perfect... Makes me want sheep for the backyard).

A wonderful painting, Rima, I like the yellow so much! I am so sorry your lost all that work on the hard drive, I hope you manage to look at it as a new start, sort of.(When I think of all the stuff I have in my really old computer...and I`m not good at making backups either!)

Thanks lovely people for your kind words.. as for clues to the ideas behind it, click on that yellow link there "seven paintings" to find out what's behind it all... and who knows if my client'll be up for me posting his feedback.. we'll see... I'm off to begin the fourth one now in the sun :)xx cheerio

I love this combination of the east and west. My friend's an acupuncturist but descended form Romany gypsies. All our cultures seem to be merging together these days which appeals to my sense of creativity as an evolving thing. :) BTW I love the way you use words - I wish I could do it! And I LOVE these paintings, what a lucky person your commissioner is!

About Me

Rima Staines is an artist using paint, wood, word, music, animation, clock-making, puppetry & story to attempt to build a gate through the hedge that grows along the boundary between this world & that. Her gate-building has been a lifelong pursuit, & she hopes to have perhaps propped aside even one spiked loop of bramble (leaving a chink just big enough for a mud-kneeling, trusting eye to glimpse the beauty there beyond), before she goes through herself.

Always stubborn about living the things that make her heart sing, Rima’s houses have a tendency to be wheeled. She currently dwells in an old cottage on top of a hill on the edge of Dartmoor with her beloved, Tom, & their big-hearted, ice-eyed lurcher, Macha.

Rima’s inspirations include the world & language of folktale; faces of people who pass her on the street; folk music & art of Old Europe & beyond; peasant & nomadic living; magics of every feather; wilderness & plant-lore; the margins of thought, experience, community & spirituality; & the beauty in otherness.

Crumbs fall from Rima’s threadbare coat pockets as she travels, & can be found collected here, where you may join the caravan.